Ubuntu Edge: The desktop-replacement smartphone that’s doomed to fail

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Two days ago, Canonical unveiled its next gambit to push Ubuntu into the hands of consumers: The Ubuntu Edge smartphone. If the Edge Indiegogo project can raise $32 million before August 22, 40,000 Ubuntu Edge smartphones will enter the mobile ecosystem in May 2014 — if the project fails, Canonical says that it will instead focus on bringing Ubuntu to commercially available smartphones, and that the Edge will quietly disappear into the digital ether. And trust me, the Edge will fail.

The Ubuntu Edge is what I like to call a desktop replacement smartphone (DRS). In theory, the Edge runs the Ubuntu Phone OS (or Android, your choice) — then, when you connect it to an external monitor via HDMI and attach a mouse and keyboard via Bluetooth, the Edge automatically switches over to a full version of the Ubuntu Desktop OS. The idea is that, on the move, the Edge is a normal smartphone — but at home or in the office, it becomes your desktop PC. All of your files and settings are synchronized between the mobile and desktop OSes, and it seems you can even access mobile features — such as making and receiving calls — from the desktop.

As I have said before, I believe that the desktop replacement smartphone is the future of computing. The future simply isn’t here yet, though, and the Ubuntu Edge is destined to fail. Putting aside the fact that it will almost certainly not reach its funding goal (current estimates put the total at around $20 million after 31 days), there are a slew of hardware and software challenges that cannot be overcome for the next few years.

For a start, there are still severe limitations on the hardware that you can squeeze into the smartphone form factor. The Edge is by no means a small phone — 64x124x9mm, or about the same size as a normal 4.5-inch Android smartphone — but, given the state of the art of processors and batteries, there’s still only so much that Canonical can squeeze in. The Indiegogo project page says that the Edge will have 4GB of RAM, 128GB of flash storage, a 4.5-inch 1280×720 display (with a sapphire glass screen), and all of the usual wireless, sensory, and camera gubbins. So far, so good.

The SoC, however, remains unlisted, with the project page merely stating that the Edge will have “the fastest multi-core CPU,” and no word at all about the GPU. There’s also no mention of battery size. These are by far the most important factors when discussing the validity and usefulness of a desktop replacement smartphone.

We know for a fact that it won’t have the fastest multi-core CPU, because it simply isn’t feasible to squeeze an Intel Xeon into a smartphone. What Canonical must mean is that it’ll try to squeeze in the fastest ARM or Atom chip. Based on its expected shipping date of May 2014, this probably means that the Edge will be powered by Intel’s Silvermont-based Merrifield SoC, or perhaps something along the lines of the Qualcomm Snapdragon 800. Both of these chips will be best-in-class for mobile use, but their ability to run multiple, windowed desktop apps is questionable. Can you imagine running a word processor, video player, and numerous smaller apps side-by-side on a smartphone?

There are also serious questions about the power of the GPU. If we assume that the Edge will be powered by the Snapdragon 800, that means we’re looking at the Adreno 330 GPU. (We don’t know what GPU Merrifield will have yet, but it’ll probably be comparable to the Adreno 330). The Adreno 330 posts benchmark scores that are around half that of Ivy Bridge’s integrated HD 4000 graphics — and as we know, the HD 4000 will only play last-year’s games at medium res and low details.

And then there’s the battery. While the battery obviously doesn’t matter when you’re docked, it plays a huge role in defining the power envelope of the SoC and other components, because this is still a mobile device that will be used on the move. To achieve adequate performance for desktop computing, Canonical might have to squeeze a quad-core Bay Trail chip inside — but when you’re unplugged, you might not have enough juice to power that beefy SoC for more than a couple of hours. Ultimately, without a decent battery, you end up with the smartphone equivalent of a desktop replacement laptop — you know, one of those gonad-melting beasts that doesn’t last more than 30 minutes on battery power. For a $830 device that will primarily replace your existing smartphone, that just won’t fly.

The post-PC utopia

Perhaps we’re being too hard on the Ubuntu Edge, though. Maybe it’s more than enough to start with a smartphone that can be plugged into a monitor for some big-screen word processing or web browsing. As hardware and battery life improves, a true desktop replacement smartphone that can multitask and play PC-quality 3D games might become feasible. As is often the case with Kickstarter and Indiegogo projects, you are basically buying into something that isn’t quite ready for prime time — you are brute forcing the development process with your consumer dollars, in effect — and it would be silly to expect the first version of a product, produced in tiny quantities with little hardware experience, to be perfect.

The Ubuntu Edge, as perhaps the name suggests, is a bleeding-edge device for people who want to be first in line to experience the consolidated, carry-your-desktop-with-you future. In that regard, it’s a very exciting device indeed. Even if it does fail miserably, it lays the groundwork for an exciting new breed of converging post-PC devices — and, ironically enough, we’d finally have a Linux desktop that’s capable of gaining significant market share.

Tagged In

I think that this is less ‘lets make a device that we can sell on the market’ and more ‘lets make a device that enthusiast will buy and through that lets show the world what our software can do even with underpowered hardware.’

pelov lov

Yea, this is definitely a case of differentiation and offering something entirely new rather than providing a stable and mature platform to consumers right off the bat. This is inevitably going to suffer from a serious case of the first gensies, but I think it’s worth the growing pains. Ubuntu isn’t going to get anything accomplished by going with a ‘me too’ approach to entering the smartphone/tablet market. Just look at WP8 :/

I also don’t think that the hardware will be an issue, frankly. The dedicated video decoders on SoCs are very good and with the introduction of 64-bit ARM and Intel SoCs, we should see more RAM for multitasking – which for most users is just 20 tabs open in a web browser anyway.

Lots of folks are bypassing their PC upgrades in favor of tablets and smartphones, and now a majority of their interaction with a ‘PC’ is with a tablet and/or smartphone. Pulling out your phone and docking it so you can type away on a keyboard seems like a natural transition to me. Let’s face it, the majority of people who used to buy desktops never needed them to begin with, but just the keyboard.

Micaiah James Fonken

I think people are forgetting the low resource requirements that most Linux systems have… even Ubuntu being as bloated as it is, doesn’t seem to top 2GB of ram very often on my PC, even running things like Blender and Gimp, and a few libreoffice docs. I mostly skimmed the article, but I don’t see much taking into account the OS itself. Only the hardware was considered.

Marrach

I actually see One market for this concept: Africa and the rest of the Third world. We sometimes forget that it is NOT everywhere where someone has the choice between a iPhone, a Mac or can Call Dell for a PC.

So the parts of the world where the growing device market IS the Cell phone. A cellphone that can ‘morph’ into a low powered, internet capable PC by attaching to a Monitor may be a niche technology for certain parts of the world.

GatzLoc

No.. $100 p4/core 2 duo desktops have you beat.

Marrach

Here in America…Yes. I wasn’t talking about America or England. I was talking Africa. Or even parts of the Subcontinent outside the Main Cities, out in the sticks. Even in China, where a lot of their population still resides in the countryside…and a CELLPHONE is their Primary Tech Buy…NOT a PC.

Maventwo

Ubuntu Edge concept can outrival all types of PC and probably even tablet pc for most application (not in the living room!).

Joel Hruska

I agree with you that we are headed in a direction where most people compute most of the time with touch.

This is subject to certain significant limits on battery life, device capability, and a fundamental need for performance. Adobe will never port the full desktop version of Photoshop to a smartphone because a smartphone is incapable of adequately presenting the UI (and a program as complex as Photoshop cannot be simplified to smartphone touchscreen levels and still retain its full suite of capabilities.)

That doesn’t mean we won’t have smartphones with photo editing. It suggests, instead, that there will be a demarcation between power users who require pixel-perfect pointing devices and serious program functionality (desktops, notebooks) and everybody else.

Marrach

Actually, I would qualify that statement further…
‘Most CASUAL Users would USE such a device for general content viewing, minor documents and website user interfaces…’
These are the people and the uses I was thinking about when I said this concept might go very well in Third world and rural areas like farm villages in India and China.
Most CASUAL users have no need for Photoshop. They don’t even know that GIMP even exists and have no need for that either. As another poster intimated– the Average CASUAL PC user is ever ONLY using the PC for Email and web-browsing. The rest of the Box, the 4+ GB of memory, the other THREE cores on the CPU…they’ll never touch it! That’s why Tablets are taking off like they are. A good portion of Tablet customers have NO NEED for a full boxed PC or even a Laptop.
And in the Developing Third world where the Cellphone is the NEW Network, they are more concerned about e-Communications and using the various forms of e-commerce enabled via their smartphones. For these people, most of them, CASUAL users, a touch interfaced Smartphone device is ALL they need at this juncture.

But in another 5 years– Whooosh! Things may take off like it did for us in the 90s.

GatzLoc

5 6 years from now, maybe however, first off, there is an entire pc repair and support infra, second cost, third, personal vs family use, Lastly mobile Internet.

1mb for 3gb then 256kbs is 10 dollars+ a month in Jalandhar. That’s more expensive than North American mobile internet, when people have that Internet at home what do you think cell will have?

There are idiots selling their land for iPhone or drugs, but majority have cheap Nokia and prepaid sim.

People will get pc first.

Also, Khalistan Zindabad.

This subcontinent would have starved over the past 40 years if not for the USA and Punjab so long term discussions given the climate in both areas (political) are senseless.

Shastran Ke Adheen Hai Raaj||

VJKVJF||

Saby

“Adobe will never port the full desktop version of Photoshop to a smartphone because a smartphone is incapable of adequately presenting the UI “

never is a big word! the newer windows 8 laptops are all touch. And high end smartphones have more number of pixels than the usual laptop.

On the hardware side, look at the increase in GPU capabilities from Snapdragon 600 to 800. Nearly doubled. And that is just with architecture improvements only (both 28nm planar). Would anyone bet against it doubling and then doubling again with the move to 20nm and then 14/16nm trigate… where does that leave the comparison with Intel core series processors in the next couple of years. As of Intel moving forward with its own GPU, well Larrabee was such a success, wasn’t it!! And how much improvement has there been in Intel integrated GPU performance over the last 3 years??

Always remember when comparing Intel and the best of breed of ARM. Intel is on a 22nm finfet manufacturing process, Snapdragon is on 28nm planar. In 2015, Intel and ARM converge on the manufacturing node.

So, I guess by next year or if not, then definitely by 2015, we are going to see smartphone hardware fully able to run PCs. As for Adobe and others like it, they should be moving towards where the puck is going rather than where it is right now

Joel Hruska

never is a big word!

It’s not about hardware, it’s about precision. You can’t do pixel-perfect selection with a fingertip. You can’t pack enormous complexity into a finger-driven interface.

That doesn’t mean most users won’t transition to touch devices — if anything, it implies a market bifurcation.

Hoàng Anh

5 6 years from now, maybe however, first off, there is an entire pc repair and support infra, second cost, third, personal vs family use, Lastly mobile Internet.

Sadly. You’re wrong. I live in a so called “Third World” country; not the poorest of all, but still.
Firstly: this device is expensive, much more than a cheap smartphone and cheap desktop pc put together. (Of course it will deliver much more, but is still expensive).
Secondly, and maybe most important: Crimes and cellphone’s stealing are something common, I think that more than half of my friends got their cellphone stolen at least ONCE. This would most certainly be an issue if I have to be carrying around BOTH my pc and cellphone at the same time.

Though I love the idea, it is NOT for the Third World countries yet.

Marrach

Not to disparage what you’ve said– but I would still argue that this is the Form/Function direction that we are heading towards. Even here on the streets of NYC, the desired device of choice IS the Cellphone. NOT the PC. The Tablet is a moderate second place.

The girl talking into her iPhone or her samsung galaxy doesn’t REALLY think of it as a ‘Smartphone’ or an ARM-powered handheld PC. To her, like a lot of people, it’s a Cellphone that let’s them look at their email, Facebook and do basic transactions with their bank. Something that before they were basically FORCED to by a PC or a Laptop and stash it on a desk somewhere.

And yes, they’re stolen on a regular basis. Doesn’t stop people from NEEDING it, though. When your friends phone was stolen– Did they throw up their hands and Cry: “That’s it! I won’t risk the money anymore and will just wait until I get home to check my email!”

Not bloody likely.

People everywhere will be needing a Connective device to access even basic Gov’t services…and a Smartphone that can expand into a Full sized Interface on a Monitor is something I can see an internet cafe shop offering Monitor-Linkup for a tiny fee. Or something like that…mind you, I’m not talking TODAY. More like in a few years, this may be a more prevalent plug-in capability on MANY smartphone brands now that Ubuntu has broached the ordinary consumer-friendly version of the idea.

Yes, I know Geeks already know how to do it with all kinds of work-arounds. But if a farmer in the sticks or a girl can just plug a cable between the phone and a flatscreen to get a functional PC, it will be a ‘Well Duh, of course!” moment.

GatzLoc

Hey racist dravid mlechha when parts of your own shit country make Africa look like heaven, why the rhetoric Africa and the rest of the third world? Niggers in NYC making you insecure? Or a black woman reject you?

For the specs this is a good deal, but your attitude showing. Fair and lovely that way..

I usually get stuff for half on ebay so I wouldn’t get this yet, and my pc is fine 2500k will run around this.

I’m going to go look at Ubuntu Os because a fellow countrymen is pushing it, but BlackBerry 10 seems to be more efficient t most tasks.

Khalistan Zindabad

Nicolas Klein

They don’t avoid BUYING a phone. But almost always choose the cheapest phone available that meets their most basic requirements.
I could EASILY, like REALLY EASILY afford an iPhone 5 (or even better a Galaxy S4), yet I chose to buy a 130$ used (but good enough) Android instead.

I agree that potentially this will be the devices everywhere around, but on 3rd world countries they’ll have to get a LOT cheaper before they reach massive market.

zmax

This is only a Limited edition for professionals as Mark has stated! It is a testing ground.

hengels

There is a market everywhere. Let us face the facts: $6,331,315 in 3 days – so there are people who want that.
If you don’t like Ubuntu Edget buy something else. I am in, I want to be part of the revolution and I have no problems if other people stick with their legacy devices.

streamcomputing

I like your question what CPU and GPU can be in the Edge, as it is an important unanswered question.

But seriously… you’ve only been looking at CPU/GPU offerings from two US-only companies and dropped to conclusions it would be Intel or Qualcomm? Did you even check what companies like Imagination Technologies and ARM will offer in 2014? I’d appreciate if you did, and updated the article.

Joel Hruska

You don’t seem to understand how the licensing model works. ARM builds CPU designs, not CPUs. So it could theoretically be an Nvidia chip or a Samsung Exynos, but Qualcomm currently rules the roost on performance with Intel as the x86 alternate.

The chances that an NV or Samsung part would offer dramatically different performance is negligible. It could utilize an Imagination or Mali GPU, but again, performance will likely hit at the top end of today’s tablet range, as exemplified by the Adreno 330.

streamcomputing

I know that there are IP-only companies and IP+silicon companies. Your conclusions are not very accurate though.

A few possibilities for 2014 phones/tablets: Nvidia Tegra 5 (300-400 GFLOPS), ARM MALI T658 (500-600 GFLOPS), Imtech PowerVR 6 (100 – 1000 GFLOPS). The GFLOPS-numbers are based on marketing-stories, so please read them as such. The release dates of these GPUs are very vague though. The Adreno 330 is picked as the performance-king for Q4 2013 (LG G2 and Sony Xperia Z Ultra), but certainly not for Q2 2014.

It’s not the GPU that sells Qualcomm but the modem. Unfortunately for Intel, there’s currently no reason to buy them over anyone else in mobile market :P And, yea, I definitely think that even the current flock of SoCs can provide the power to drive such a device. 20nm should allow for an even bigger bump (risk production late 2013 with ramping mid-2014?)

I think you’re overestimating the sheer processing power required here, Joel. I see this as a ‘plug your phone in and type away’ thing and not a ‘replace your workstation because you won’t need it anymore’ shindig. This is a product for folks who never needed a desktop other than the keyboard, the display, and an OS conducive to fitting both of those peripherals – which is a huge chunk of people. It’s sort of like Metro, except you don’t have to feel like an idiot when you’re asked to ‘slide to unlock’

Joel Hruska

Sure. But I’m not really arguing against that. The fact that *I’m* not happy with a smartphone as a universal use device doesn’t mean no one else can’t be. ;)

Qualcomm is the safest assumption. But even if it *isn’t* Qualcomm, I don’t see that changing the final equation one iota. Take out Qualcomm, drop in Samsung, story doesn’t really change.

GatzLoc

… x86 vs arm that is the story. Joel covered that..

MadisonHJ

I’d like to see this device make it. I would like to check out this new toy.

Taylor Holmes

Until the open source world can implement office software comparable to MS Office, this concept would fail even if it was free. So far, Libre Office and Apache Open Office have failed us. Maybe mozilla should swoop in and save the day; they’ve already made a good email client.

Jeremy Garcia

It already does. For 90% of users, Libre Office is either comparable, or better than MS Office. Considering that MS’s Ribbon interface is a joke, especially for productivity oriented users, I don’t see how Libre Office ISN’T a viable replacement for MS Office. It may be fine for the non-savvy users, but for people who need to get work done, it’s a real hindrance. If you combine the fact the Libre Office has a traditional menu layout we’re all used to, and ubuntu’s ability to search nested menus for commands (via HUD), Libre Office is just better at getting work done. And considering the cost of MS Office along with MS Windows, it only makes sense to use MS Office if, and only if, the company uses some seriously advanced formatting, formulas, macros, etc., but even then Libre Office is catching up in those departments as well.

The only time I’ve needed MS Office is to convert format sensitive documents (such as resumes) to .docx format for digital viewing, and the only reason why I need to do that is because everyone (including non-profits and public services who can’t really afford the licenses) are stuck on MS Office.

Joel Hruska

I loathe Libre Office (and pre-Office 2007) graph engines. That’s a killer. As far as Word is concerned, I’m confident I could switch if I had reason to.

zmax

Haha, I have used Ubuntu over 4 years now and do many things and research is my priority and Open Source has not failed, do a little research. Movies are rendered on Ubuntu, Google developers run Ubuntu and Servers are running Ubuntu over RedHat, the wave is coming like it or not!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

Jamie MacDonald

It’d be nice to see something like this work. I could buy into it. I wouldn’t see it replacing a desktop within this decade, though. There will always be more power available to a desktop than a smartphone, and for gaming and intensive professional work, the desktop is still going to hang in there.

zmax

Sadly the desktop is dying! I will always use one but as News states daily the laptop is losing sales f a s t! Remember when we stored data on a floppy and now we have flash drives, things will change and Canonical is at the forefront of evolution!

Jamie MacDonald

The news also tells me that the war in Afghanistan will end soon. I tend to ignore the news.

Laptops are inferior to desktops and smartphones. They’re a halfway that’ll get bled out between the two. Too bulky compared to a phone, too weak and hot compared to a desktop.

Pierre

I started reading the article and I got tired with the CPU debate. If the Ubuntu desktop on Android phone is already working, why would it be an issue for this new model?

hengels

Hi Pierre, here are commenting too many people who are arguing coming from ideology or fear. Many Windows users can’t accept that they are a dying species although still a majority (at least on the desktop). But the Linux wave can’t get stopped and so the Windows lemmings create FUD. You are right the CPU discussion is stupid and I am doubting that most commenting people here have a solid experience with Ubuntu. My oldest PC is 20 years old and runs Ubuntu 12.04 without any problems.

hengels

Hi Pierre, here are commenting too many people who are arguing coming from ideology or fear. Many Windows users can’t accept that they are a dying species although still a majority (at least on the desktop). But the Linux wave can’t get stopped and so the Windows lemmings create FUD. You are right the CPU discussion is stupid and I am doubting that most commenting people here have a solid experience with Ubuntu. My oldest PC is 20 years old and runs Ubuntu 12.04 without any problems.

Alex Peter

I knew Extremetech is a WINDOW licker. But seriously guys, how the HELL you know that it is doomed to fail even before a launch? Please lay for a while, I think it will pass, if not see a doctor, nothing wrong in that. This will be last article I’ll be reading in Extremtech. Good bye.

Maventwo

Yeah! I don´t believe in this doomed prediction either.
Just think of how Windows Surface RT is declining!
And tablet pc virtual keyboard don´t have any tactile feedback as a ordinary keyboard have.When tablets get EAP=Electro-Active-Polymers maybe tactile feedback can make tablet pc same property as ordinary keyboards.
Canonical have showed this concept before with a dock for connect a smartphone to a computer display (and a keyboard and a mouse).
I rather think that this concept will outrival all types of PC (or mostly applications for PC).

hengels

So they will lick soon a cadaver :-)

Senthilkumar Raju

OK. I have decided to pledge $625 + $30. I hope I will find a use for such device. :) I feel I have too many computers already. But if it is a success I will definitely develop for it, so it should be worth it.

Smart, I would have got shastaar and a Samsung or BlackBerry off eBay. Are you a dravid?

callum ramage

The first version of the iPhone was HORRIBLE to use and we all know how that worked out. The first gen is for the enthusiasts, second gen will be the less adventurous enthusiasts and third gen will hit mass adoption. I don’t personally think this kickstarter will succeed but I think the phone would.

So few of the people I know play games on computers. So few of the people I know multi task on computers. All the average consumer wants is something they can attach to a larger screen and watch youtube with.

Maventwo

It is a indiegogo-crowdfunding project not kickstarter!
The Ubuntu Edge phone it too expensive but it will of course be expensive in the beginning for early adopters!
And think of all fork of Ubuntu if they start similar crowdfunding projects and developing!
Docking a smartphone to a computer display can outrival all types of PC (or mostly of them!).

Maventwo

Why is Ubuntu Edge doomed to fail?
The phone is to expensive but it have a lot of top edge properties like LTE dual antennas,4gb RAM and 128gb internal memory (maybe the last property is not so important).But I still believe in Canonical´s concept with a dock to connect a smartphone to a computer display and using the smartphone as broadband connection!

hengels

It is not expensive considering the fact that a desktop PC can get replaced.

Postulative

Can I install Steam for Linux on this? Will it run my games?

I know it won’t run my 700+ Windows games (yes, I’m addicted), but if it can run a subset that may make it tempting.

bmarkovic

Not likely. Steam is x86 only closed source app and while Valve wants to go ARM apparently (they even have plans for own console apparently), none of that will be there in 2014.

Dozerman

A. This had better be an Atom inside there. You have to remember that any software that already runs on Ubuntu OS is only really compiled for X86 with the exception of a small percentage that is compiled for the Ubuntu on ARM project (or whatever it’s called). I really don’t believe Conical has the buisness clout to convince every developer to port their software to ARM, either.

B. This whole “PostPC Utopia” thing really kills me. People already have more than they “need” with a phone, and have for some time, and yet companies like Lenovo, AMD, Intel and Nvidia (okay, maybe not AMD, but when has that not been the case?) are still making billions in spite of their mobile products only being a fraction of their total sales.

The desktop is never really going to die. It’s still cheaper to build a 300 dollar APU based rig and place it in an office than to issue your workers all smartphones that they would have to plug into a monitor that was already there in the first place for the computer. On the home front, gamers and hobbyist such as the many computer generated artists and folders will always want more power, no matter how much your phone offers. There will always be the “oh, your phone plays Battlefield 3 at 1080p on max settings at 35FPS?, Well, my rig plays BF3 at 4K X 3 at max at 60FPS on 240Hz 3d monitors.”

I will admit that the normal soccer moms and grandmas will be well suited to use only a smartphone (believe me, my grandma knows how to use Facebook a little too well), but there will never be a day when there isn’t a market for a strong desktop build, even if the numbers are shrinking amongst the plebs, and to that effect, I say good riddance. The fewer calls I get from family and friends asking me to fix another freakin Macbook, the better.

bmarkovic

Well, unlike other ecosystems Ubuntu can leverage the fact that it’s open-source so they don’t need to get software authors to port the software to ARM, package managers can. In fact, large majority of Debian (the source of 99% of Ubuntu’s apps and packages) has been ported to ARM to a great extent already:

Off course, few closed source programs that do exist and are native apps (i.e. not Java or something like that) will either need to be ported by the authors, or won’t be available.

zapper

I think this report is doomed to fail maybe it was written with an influence from big shots.
This device is the future of computing and its best for convergence.
I am tired of using PC, cell phone, laptop and tablet and instead if I get one device to work with , there is nothing like it.
Besides you carry your privacy with it wherever you go.

I am not the greatest fan of an all ubuntu base environment but lets be realistic even if this does work and is not a big failure it will still only be a first gen device and we all know it would not be long before we have the same type of device from Android and Microsoft and Mac. and a lower cost and with second gen tech in it. this but a first step into what we all know is the way forward, wearable tech that is not just for facebook but would be able to do anything a PC can do.

Choking Kojak

You said “form factor” — my respect for you immediately fell…

douzo

I’m not sure I want to live with the tradeoffs of shrinking my PC to smart phone size…even in the near future where they are more and more capable, a full sized PC or at least laptop-sized device will blow it away in performance and price. I don’t mind size, my place has plenty of room for these devices!

mo79uk

Most people have USB printers, scanners, chat headsets, external drives (inc. optical), stereo-jack speakers, so unless you have/invest in Bluetooth versions of those, this is going to be not much better than adding a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse to a tablet.
As Apple don’t seem to be much interested in convergence (yet anyway), the only company that could realistically pull this off are Microsoft, and even then it’s too early for them to ponder, and they know it.

zmax

Some folks said the same thing when floppy drives first came out, this is the way to store data, floppys are history flash drives today cloud tomorrow!
Canonical is at the forefront of evolution!

zmax

Sebastian I feel sorry for you, such a shallow mind! I do not have a ‘smartphone’ yet and will not buy one unless it has Ubuntu OS!!!!!!!

GizmoChicken

I don’t think too many prospective buyers consider the Edge to be a true “desktop-replacement” but rather an unlocked high-end smartphone that runs both Android and Ubuntu. The fact that the Edge has desktop functionality is just a bonus. So no, the Edge isn’t doomed to fail. Will the Edge supplant the iPhone? No. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it, or one of its offspring, outsells the Nexus 4.

Name

Why does the desktop computer have to die for the edge project to work out? Can’t there be a market for both?

svenjohansson55

So there is no doubt that our main “PC” will be mobile very soon. I would love to see a two layer hybrid OS(chrome os with file support+android) from google in next gen phones.

pixelstuff

Our very own SELMA unit.

I can’t wait until that’s a real thing.

bmarkovic

1) Snapdragon 800 is old news. Canonical made it pretty clear they will aim for fresh-outta-lab hardware that other vendors will still not consider in serial production at that time (may 2014) — i.e. something ike hardware that will appear on top of the line androids circa xmas 2014 or even early 2015.

2) What would be a lot more proper journalism is having something like a T7200 in there with GMA 950, since I still have my old HP nc6400 and it runs Ubuntu (even Unity) just fine (think Eclipse, Inkscape, Gimp and DarftSight CAD software), and flies on XFCE.

FFaael

Really I think that sounds like bullshit marketing. I get the impression the big manufactures pay the component makers to get the best new hardware first. How shall canonical pay more than samsung and apple.

bmarkovic

Samsung and ESPECIALLY Apple do not want to make a mobile phone that costs $600 ex works and sell it for $800. Apple has all that cash primarily because the $1000 iPhone costs $150 in the Chinese factory that makes it for Apple. There is a bullshit marketing in the whole story, but it’s the bullshit marketing you have already swallowed hook and sink. Canonical are not in the mobile phone business. This is a one off whose sole purpose is to get the tech in the market early to show off their OS.

I don’t see it doomed or failing. I think the article is poorly researched.
We’ve been using devices weaker than the edge for years. Both my tablet and netbook are slower than the edge, and both of those I’ve docked, or connected to the TV. If those old devices are fast enough, and the Edge has a better CPU and GPU then it’ll be fine for most desktop use. The entire specs argument is Bogus.
Battery life when docked is irrelevant, as you’ll be next to a mains outlet.

Given all of my docs, projects and VCS have been online for years, we’ve been in the “desktop in your pocket” future for a long time. The edge is just the next step in a long line of progress that you’d have to have sat in a hole with a bucket on your head not to notice.

That said, being able to dock/undock your phone isn’t a great advantage, because its already synced to the cloud and up to date with my PC, but it’d be nice to have the same customised apps, inbox, message history, and environment available.

I think your phone can not replace the desktop, but also must recognize that it will reduce the amount of user desktops, desktop however it does have those applications that we require that your phone can not replace, I’m a designer I still have to use the powerful desktop

I think this report is doomed to fail maybe it was written with an influence from big shots.
This device is the future of computing and its best for convergence.
I am tired of using PC, cell phone, laptop and tablet and instead if I get one device to work with , there is nothing like it.
Besides you carry your privacy with it wherever you go.
you should see the theme of my air purifier: http://maylockhongkhiusa.com